The Winter

We started fistfighting in the snow. The pavement full of snow.
Jim swung first, so I defended myself. I slipped his wild right,
and caught him with a left jab. He stumbled back a little.
I persisted with a 1, 2, and as he fell, I put my knees into his chest.
“You want more?” I said. “Fucker!” he yelled. I got off him.
“If you want more, let’s go. Otherwise get lost.”
He dusted himself off, and walked away.

José Hernández Díaz holds degrees in English and creative writing from the University of California, Berkeley, and Antioch University Los Angeles. His poetry and prose poetry appears or is forthcoming in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Gigantic Sequins, Green Mountains Review, Huizache, Los Angeles Review, Lumina, New Delta Review, Parcel, Pleiades, The Progressive, Whiskey Island, and other journals. He has served as an editor for Floricanto Press and Lunch Ticket.